Battery Charger for Smaller Boats

By Mark Corke

Keep your batteries in tip-top shape with this combined unit.

There's often little room for electrical equipment on a small boat, so incorporating two functions into one piece of equipment to save space can be helpful. Blue Sea Systems BatteryLink is a compact, waterproof unit, suitable for flooded and AGM (absorbed glass matt) batteries that could be the perfect solution.

Measuring slightly less than 7 inches long by 5 inches wide and 2 inches thick, the unit incorporates an internal 65 amp automatic charging relay allowing two separate batteries to be charged simultaneously. It works by connecting both batteries together when a DC charge more than 13 volts from the engine alternator is detected; yet isolating them from one another when no charging voltage is present, or a load on either battery causes its voltage to drop below 12.75 volts.

If that's not impressive enough, the BatteryLink is also a genuine three-stage marine battery charger. Blue Sea says battery banks with total capacity between 60 and 120 amps will remain correctly charged when the unit is plugged into shore power. A remote monitor is included that can be mounted in the cockpit or some other suitable location. MSRP is $200. bluesea.com